Japanese Marubeni Corporation (Marubeni) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Chinese Sinopec for cooperation in the field of marine fuels ahead the IMO’s global sulphur cap.
The agreement was signed on 5 June in Zhoushan, China, to address the need on available fuels, as the IMO has decided to lower the cap on sulfur to marine fuels from the current 3.5% to 0.5%, from 1st January 2020.
In this respect, supply and demand for Low Sulfur Marine Fuel Oil is expected to tighten in the near future, Marubeni noted.
China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) recently announced their plan to produce 10 million tons of Low Sulfur Marine Fuel Oil per year at their refineries, which they will then supply domestically within China.
Under this agreement, Marubeni pledged to supply and sell Sinopec Fuel Oil’s ship fuel to Japanese ship owners, for whom procuring environmentally friendly fuel is a major concern, at major Chinese ports.
The companies will work together to adapt to this ever-changing environment with increasingly stringent sulfur emission regulations, and pursue all possibilities of bilateral cooperation, not only in marine fuels, but in other businesses as well,
…Marubeni said.
